Julian took on the role as Toastmater for the first time at our April 20 meeting. The evening’s theme was “creative destruction”. Working on his home renovation project reminded Julian that it was similar to developing a good speech. Home renovation requires tearing down old parts of the house and replacing them with better updated parts. Similarly, developing a good quality speech can result in tearing the speech apart and tapping into creativity to build it into something newer and more interesting.

We heard three speeches during the prepared speech segment of the meeting.

Rolando gave his first speech from the “Competent Communication Manual”. He spoke about coming to Canada from the Philippines, touched on a few of his hobbies and spoke passionately about his career as an accountant.

Next we saw a very serious side of Francisco, who provided facts and anecdotes in his third speech about internet safety.

Finally, Arvind delivered his sixth speech. The memorable title “Boom, boom, boom” was a clear, distinct and strong reminder that he was doing a speech on vocal variety.

We didn’t have Table Topics. Instead, Ram did a wonderful workshop on evaluating speeches – a crucial role in all our Toastmaster meetings and an important element that helps us develop as better speakers. Ram cautioned that when evaluating our peers, we don’t want to take a page out of Simon Cowell’s book and be labelled as mean spirited and low. On the other hand, we don’t want to come across as weepy and soft like J. Lo either. Effective evaluation means we can give constructive criticism that speakers can take away to improve and apply to their professional growth. Ram focused on some great techniques and gave us a handy reference too. This workshop generated a lot of questions from the audience. Job well done Ram!